LSI Offers MegaRAID Controller Cards, Host Bus Adapters

Cost-conscious businesses might look to LSI to fill its storage adaptation needs with the company's upgraded family of 6Gb/s SATA+SAS storage adapters.

Networking technology and storage specialist LSI Corp.
announced it is expanding its portfolio of 6Gb/s SATA+SAS storage adapters with
the introduction of MegaRAID controller cards and host bus adapters (HBAs).
Offerings include the first 6Gb/s controller cards in the MegaRAID entry line,
expansion of the MegaRAID value and feature lines, and upgraded HBAs including
a high port count configuration. The MegaRAID entry-level solution comes in to
configurations, the SAS 9240-4i, listed for $229 and the SAS 9240-8i, listed
for $325.

The value and feature line products and high port count HBAs
are immediately available, while the company said the entry-level controllers
are expected to be available in February 2010. The
entry line of controllers are designed for inside-the-box connectivity and
include the four-port MegaRAID SAS 9240-4i and eight-port SAS 9240-8i cards.
New additions to the MegaRAID value and feature lines include the eight-port
SAS 9261-8i and the SAS 9280-4i4e, which supports both internal storage and
external JBOD expansion with four internal and four external ports. For the
MegaRAID Value/Feature line, the SAS 9261-8i model lists for $599 while the SAS
9280-4i4e model lists for $785.

Sergis Mushell a principal
research analyst at Gartner, said the use of RAID controller technologies in
server and storage solutions has become pervasive from small to medium-size
businesses (SMBs) to the enterprise due to their ability to cost effectively
extend data protection, I/O performance and system capacity. "Vendors
offering a broad portfolio of SATA and SAS RAID controllers based on the latest
generation 6Gb/s SAS interface technology will allow customers to implement a
high-performance, hardware RAID solution that best matches their application
requirements and IT budget constraints," he said. LSI also expanded its family of 6Gb/s SAS-based HBAs with
updated configurations designed for servers connecting to large numbers of
drives, both inside and outside the server chassis. The LSI SAS 9200-16e is a
sixteen-port 6Gb/s PCI Express SATA+SAS HBA with support for up to 1024 SATA
and SAS physical devices. The company said it allows businesses to expand
storage capacity up to two petabytes. The new LSI SAS 9212-4i4e enables
customers to connect to both internal and external storage arrays and supports
up to 256 SATA and SAS physical devices. "The LSI portfolio of RAID controllers and host bus
adapters is the most extensive 6Gb/s SAS product line available to the
channel," said Brent Blanchard, director of
worldwide channel sales and marketing for LSI. "Our channel customers now
have access to 6Gb/s SAS-based storage controllers that span the market from
entry-level to enterprise-class systems, providing them with the flexibility to
meet the demands of a broad range of applications at affordable price
points."

Nathan Eddy is Associate Editor, Midmarket, at eWEEK.com. Before joining eWEEK.com, Nate was a writer with ChannelWeb and he served as an editor at FierceMarkets. He is a graduate of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.